For Now You Are Here

J. MALCOLM GARCIA

It is January, 2003. The buildup for a U.S.-led war with Iraq appears unstoppable. As a reporter, I expect to be sent to Kuwait, but my editors have different plans. They believe Afghanistan may erupt in jihadist outrage once American soldiers topple Baghdad. I worked there immediately after September 11 and now I am being sent back for an embed with the 82nd Airborne Division. 
I arrive in Kabul right after the New Year, put my name on an embed list at Bagram airbase, get a room at the Mustapha Hotel and wait to be called up.
In the morning, I get up and drink lukewarm Nescafé coffee for breakfast while Bro, my Afghan translator from previous trips, eats a biscuit. We shiver together in the gray, overcast winter morning and plan our day.
Every morning, we check in with the UN and various ministries about the security situation. Rival warlords continue to fight, and al-Qaida and Taliban sympathizers remain in the areas bordering Pakistan in the southeast. A U.S. soldier is injured in a grenade attack in Kabul. Soldiers with the International Security Force regularly find and confiscate hidden weapons in the capital. 
“Afghans have become discouraged with the government,” the Minister of Higher Education, Fayez Sherief, tells me. “They believed it would solve a lot of problems. It can’t.”

Click to read more …